1: "And so I now give the Rangers Corps permission to spend a day raiding the castle, trying to capture me. This is an experiment to see if my Royal Guards could stand up to a force capturing their King."
The King of Kagari, Percival Ralis, finished his speech and rolled up the paper swiftly. He rapped Carter lightly on the head with it before handing it to him.
"Easy, Carter." Altair warned, putting a restraining hand on the Commandments shoulder, as his hand dropped to his saxe knife's hilt.
Suddenly, the King caught sight of Altair. His eyes widened with shock.
Although He hadn't met Altair before, when he came to Kagari with the other four Rangers, the king said curiously, "General Altair? Is that you?"
"Yes." A knowing look passed between them, and King Percival seized the papers again. Speaking as he wrote he said, "And Altair will lead the mission. Carter?" He added. "Yes?
"Is he training to be a Ranger?"
"We've had him practicing, but not officially. Politics, you know."
In Kagari, foreigners were treated respectfully, but if they were to join a service like the Rangers, it meant there needed to be more searching through their background and character. They had to be totally devoted to Kagari, or they would not be permitted to join. Often, they were set tasks to test their bravery and loyalty.
"I will become personally involved." Percival said, firmly.
"Now, prepare your Rangers for a war!"
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Peter said as he looked up at the castle where the King and his family lived.
The Rangers had been briefed by Carter and put into groups, led by Captains. Altair was leading the whole operation, but Eric, Tali, Evanna, and Peter were on his team.
"Well, we are. Try to relax. You might actually enjoy breaking into your own kingdoms castle. I know I did." Altair said, cracking his knuckles.
He turned to address the assembled Rangers, about fifty-six of them. (Kagari always had extra Rangers to help Carter at the cave, or go on missions.)
"Listen, many of you may enjoy this, some of you may not. Frankly, that doesn't matter right now. This is more of a training exercise for the castle guards than us. Just remember the plan, and follow through on your part. We're still a team, and we need this to run smoothly. Now let's do it!"
Instead of the usual battle cry heard from an attacking force, the Rangers pulled their hoods up over their faces and melted into the shadows with their group.
"Our goal: capture the king," Altair whispered to his companions as they approached the castle wall.
Silently, the four Rangers easily climbed up and over the wall. Altair glanced around cautiously, and followed them up and jumped down lightly.
"Evanna, lead the way." Altair breathed. "You know where to go."
Evanna nodded. She alone of the other four had been to the King's chambers, and knew the way.
The guards literally did not know what hit them. The Rangers, so that they wouldn't kill the guards, were trading their bows for their uncanny aim. Indeed, the small stones that they had opted to use could knock out a man for several hours.
The five people ghosted by the unconscious guard in the courtyard and into a long, grand hallway, with a long red carpet and tapestries of the old kings and queens on the walls. Statues of the holy gods the people in Kagari worshipped could be found next to the king or queen that was identified with the god best.
At the end of the hall there was a door which led into a large room. A long desk, almost a counter, ran along the wall facing the door. Papers were stacked on the desks, and names were etched in the wood. Obviously, from all the chairs and tables that filled the rest of the room, this was where people with complaints for the king waited until they were called into the king's chamber to see him. However, it was empty today, so that no innocent people would be in the way of the Rangers.
Several doors led off from this room, but there was an enormous, ornately carved oak door in the far corner by the long counter.
"Here we are." Altair said, and then stood erect, pulling off his hood. Four other faces came out of nowhere around him.
"You stole my line!" Evanna said irritably. The others glanced at each other and chuckled. Evanna's eyebrow flicked up, and her hand drifted down to her knives.
"Do you really want to test me?"
"No, no, we're fine with our heads just how they are."
"Good."
Altair led the way to the door and gave the silent signal- pointer finger up, and then slowly moved down and back up, which meant that they needed to use stealth to enter the area, get behind their enemies and take them out. The Rangers silently pulled their hoods up again and faded to the shadows.
Altair slid his hood up, and eased the door open. The king was asleep on his throne, but the guards stationed around the room were wide-awake and tense.
The Rangers, following the plan, moved to the four corners of the room. Just to freak out the guards, Altair waited patiently for the sounds of fighting broke out from the courtyard below.
Shouts and some explosions, created by more of Altair's mysterious bombs, often broken off suddenly by thumps and grunts of pain, were plentiful, because the courtyard was like the entryway to the castle itself, so there were more guards there than anywhere else in the castle. This was the Rangers distraction, draw the guards out and in, and make them all run for reinforcements, grab the king and head for the base.
So, as the thumps and anxious shouts grew louder, he watched the guards in the throne room get more and more nervous until he finally stepped out of the shadows, and shook his hood off. "Good day, gentlemen."
The guards panicked, seeing his head "floating" there and then even more when suddenly his head vanished again. They looked around in wonder, until, "Hey, I think he's by the door." Someone said, in the back of the group, which was actually Altair.
The guards surged forward and scoured the door.
"Come out of the shadows, spies!"
Smoothly, the four Rangers stepped out of the shadows of their respective corners. They, like Altair had done, shook of their hoods.
"Well, of course we will!" Eric said cheerfully.
"Aim and fire!" He added, flinging a stone into the group.
Chaos reined as stones came down on the guards, who abanded their weapons and fled, arms over their heads.
"That was... easy?" Evanna said.
Eric explained, "Well, of course. They aren't used to encounters like this. They don't have a lot of campaign experience."
"Well, they're definitely getting some today!" exclaimed Altair cheerfully.
"Now, let's grab the king and go!"
They ran forward, converging on the still sleeping King. He was on a throne, golden, like Yue's had been in Ang. His head rested on his arms, which were crossed and laying on the arms of the chair. The king wore an elegant red, purple and golden robe. His crown, studded with gems, seemed too large for him. It hung lopsidedly, on the verge of falling off.
The king was actually a very thin, fit man. He was often commanding his forces in drills, and it had been him who said his forces needed this practical training.
Evanna sighed. "You'd think a fighting man would be up and kicking."
"Not this one, apparently." Tali said, sounding almost disappointed.
"How are we getting out of here, Altair? Not through the courtyard, I hope. That would be a disaster." Eric asked.
"No, not the courtyard." He was running his hand along the wall, with a very serious and thoughtful expression.
"Aha!" He said a second later, and pulling out his knife, he slammed the hilt into the stone wall.
"What!" Eric was flabbergasted. "Don't do that you'll wreak the…" But he broke off, because the wall, like in Ang at the church, slid aside.
"Stonework." Eric finished in wonderment. "How did you do that?"
Altair shrugged. "Lucky guess. I figured the king would have an escape route." He glanced at the sleeping figure. "Not that it's doing him much good."
A sudden explosion made the four Rangers turn in surprise. Altair sighed. "No worries. It's just more of my bombs."
Tali grinned. "Someday, you must teach me about those."
"Not today, I'm afraid." Altair said.
Eric and Altair picked up King Percival's midsection, and Peter picked up his legs.
"Into the tunnel!" exclaimed Evanna.
Tali, snorting with laughter wrote a short note and placed it on the throne, but wouldn't let the others read it.
They shimmied their way into the tunnel, and made their way down the small corridor.
They had gone a far way into the tunnel, when they heard an explosion. Altair, at the head of the group, stopped suddenly, and the others ran into him.
Evanna, irritable as always, snapped at him. "What the heck, Altair! Why are we stopping?"
"That wasn't one of my explosions." The group looked at each other in panic.
Tali was first to voice what they were thinking. "Who is it then?"
Altair glared at her. "And how do you think I'm supposed to know?"
Evanna however, broke into their conversation with a war cry.
Then, she went hurtling down the passage the way they had come, drawing her knife.
"I got it." Peter said in a bored tone.
Since the passage was straight, they could see Evanna running down the tunnel still, and then Peter as he charged down after her.
She reached the wall before Peter caught up, and started banging on the wall madly with her knife hilt.
Peter grabbed her and dragged her back to where the others stood, with bemused expressions on their faces.
"I know we swore never to do this in front of you guys, but it's the only thing I can think of." And with that statement, Peter swung Evanna around and kissed her.
After about fifteen seconds, they broke apart.
"Sorry." Peter muttered.
Barely hiding a grin, Eric said, "That's fine."
Tali took charge then. "We need someone to stay with the king. That way the rest of us can go find out who else is trying to kidnap Percival."
The three men in unison said, "Make Evanna stay."
Immediately, Evanna's eyebrows shot up. "Why me?"
Shrugging, Altair asked, "Why not?"
Evanna gave him a glare, as though she didn't believe him, but agreed to stay.
Altair told them, "Stay here. I'll open up the wall." He gave them an evil grin. "With a bang."
He walked forward a little, fiddled in his pocket some, then threw a round, flaming object hard at the wall.
An enormous bang shook dust from the ceiling and reverberated through the walls of the small tunnel.
Coughing because of the dust, eyes stinging, Tali asked, "Was that really necessary?"
Altair paused, thinking, and replied, "Probably not."
Evanna rolled her eyes and waved them through the entrance Altair had created. "Go on. You need to find our kidnapper friends."
The six women had entered the throne room, all with their swords drawn, expecting a battle.
What they found was an empty throne room, and a sign on the throne that read, "We've taken the king. Which means you failed. Have a nice day."
The women, enraged, began cursing in a foreign language.
The three Rangers drew and fired their bows past the heads of the women. Two fled, and the others ducked or spun around, still spitting out curses.
Altair drew his sword, long and gleaming. Three others fled until only one remained in the room.
She drew a broadsword too. She had sharp blue eyes, and wore a black cape, with red along the bottom. She also had long, raven black hair. The woman leered at Altair.
"And what do you want?"
"Information. Why are you trying to capture the king?"
She laughed. "Guess. Why on earth would I wish to capture a king?"
Before Altair could reply, she took a step forward, just one, and Altair lifted his sword slightly.
Then, a green shape flashed past him. Long brown hair whipped Altair's face. At first he thought it was Tali. Then, he realized, Tali had red hair.